International Day

International Day is a special day put aside for my kids' international private school. Each grade transforms their area into another country full of fun facts, activities and crafts. Lunch was comprised of ethnic dishes that correspond to the countries that were represented. All the proceeds to the meals were donated to a school in Kenya, so eating was encouraged! (I had an amazing Ethiopian stew with a sourdough pancake, plus dessert from Turkey and tropical drinks from the Caribbean).

The Boys' grade transformed the classroom into a Kenyan safari. There was wild animal face painting, a Mancala game station, massive stuffed animals and zebras in every corner. Most importantly, it was in Kenya that I made my first friend in Germany.

Leave it to The Mom to shout introductions across a crowded room. "NICOLE!!! THAT'S KATE! KATE, THAT'S NICOLE!!" Bewildered, I scanned the class for some girl named Kate, assuming I needed to take her to the bathroom. It took a few minutes for true clarity to apparate (there are no spelling suggestions for that word, so does that mean I just quoted Harry Potter?) but after that we were gold.

This is indeed a momentous occasion. A friend, my age, finally, after three weeks in Germany. We did the whole exchanging numbers tidbit, which was a first for me and my new digits (I have recently been given a German simcard). We met again later in the Caribbean where the preschoolers threw a pirate party.

It was the most beautiful day since I've arrived and without the thought of a coat, I sat outside in my sundress and sweater. The massive sandbox was transformed into a treasure hunting spot full of shovels and chocolate coins. Some parent holding the chocolate money refused to give me one as the rules stated you had to find a voucher in the sand first. Rich people, I swear.

So fine, I grabbed a plastic shovel and jumped in that sandbox full of three year olds and dug a pit any pirate would have been proud of. Did I unearth anything? No. Was this not a game for toddlers? Some guy felt sorry for me and planted a coin to my right, which I immediately dug up and had to give to my kid. The game had potential, but man, that was too much work for very little/NO payoff. So, instead, my ingenuity took me to volunteer at the tattoo station where I freely stole chocolate coins when no one was looking. Take that, regulators of wealth.

Eventually it was just Kate and I immersed in talk of Germany and world travel. When we returned our watchful eye to the tattoos (which were actually a plethora of rubber stamps) the kids had gotten multiple colors of ink ALL OVER THEM! Shoot me now. Luckily, they did not belong to me, so I shooed them away and then relocated myself to the playgrounds.